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What is fentanyl? The drug Donald Trump is waging war on | UK News

Published

3 weeks ago

23 February 2026

What is fentanyl? The drug Donald Trump is waging war on | UK News

The Trump administration has highlighted tackling substance abuse as one of its priorities, promising to “respond to a crisis of this scale with the attention it deserves”.

The president has previously imposed tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico – citing the need to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US.

Now, with US intelligence support, Mexico’s military has killed “El Mencho” – the leader of one of the country’s biggest cartels behind the trafficking of drugs such as fentanyl.

Fentanyl causes tens of thousands of deaths in the US each year. But what is the drug, and what makes it so dangerous?

What is fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin.

As a prescription drug, it is used to treat severe pain, similarly to morphine.

The fentanyl that is used illegally is most often made in labs and sold as a powder or pill.

What makes it so dangerous?

Its strength, for starters. Because it is so potent, the difference between a dose that can kill and one that won’t is thin.

Fentanyl suppresses breathing at a much lower dose than other opioids.

Drug dealers also mix fentanyl – a cheaper drug – with heroin, cocaine, MDMA and methamphetamine to increase their profits.

Without knowing their drug has been cut with fentanyl, a person might accidentally take too much.

What are the effects of fentanyl?

Fentanyl can provide pain relief and create feelings of extreme happiness.

It can also cause nausea, confusion and sleepiness, problems breathing and unconsciousness.

What happens when someone overdoses?

Overdosing on fentanyl causes a person’s breathing to slow or stop, limiting the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain.

This can lead to a coma, permanent brain damage, or even death.

An overdose can be treated with naloxone, a medicated nasal spray, which restores normal breathing.

How many people die of fentanyl overdoses?

In 2021, more than 70,000 Americans died from a fentanyl overdose, and almost 58,000 in 2020, according to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC).

At times, more than 150 people a day in the US were dying from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

However, overdose fatalities in the US now appear to be falling.

Overdose fatalities for all drugs in the 12 months ending 31 October 2024 fell 25% to 84,000 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to CDC data.

The drop in deaths was even sharper for synthetic opioids, the vast majority due to fentanyl overdoses.

Over the same period, synthetic opioid fatalities fell by 33% to 52,400. Something

Fentanyl is less prevalent in the UK, and that’s reflected in the numbers: 58 people died from known fentanyl poisoning in 2021. The highest number of known fentanyl deaths was recorded in 2017, when 75 people died from the drug.

However, there were 4,859 deaths related to drug poisoning overall in 2021, a 6.4% increase from 2020, and half of those involved an opiate.

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How did Gail’s bakery become so controversial?

Published

5 minutes ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

How did Gail's bakery become so controversial?

What is it about Gail’s that raises the hackles of Londoners? It depends on who you ask. Some deride the bakery chain as Greggs for posh people; a yummy mummy Mecca where the jam is organic and the oat lattes are reassuringly expensive. For others, Gail’s is a bellwether of gentrification and a venture capital backed Goliath which independent cafés fear. More recently, it has been boycotted by pro-Palestine protesters over its supposed links to Israel.

For one of its co-founders, Tom Molnar, the furore is confusing. “We’re just a bakery, you know?” he shrugged in an interview last year. So how did just a bakery become a political football, whose £5 sourdough divides the chattering classes?

When a new branch of Gail’s opened in Archway, north London in February, it presented a confusing sight for passers-by. There was the cherry red awning, the pristine window display stacked with sourdough loaves, and a pastel-coloured sign outside advertising elderflower iced matcha. It was all perfectly curated quaintness.

Yet one morning, staff arrived to find that someone had taken a hammer to all of the windows in the night. Red graffiti was daubed across the walls, instructing Archway’s inhabitants to “Reject corporate Zionism”, boycott Gail’s and “support local businesses”. The week before, “Free Gaza” had been spray painted on one of the walls. Staff said they were scared to come into work, wondering what it could be next. “We want to serve the best possible food to our communities, and the vandalism we experienced in Archway serves as a distraction from doing just that,” said Molnar in a statement to the Standard.

In its first week of opening, Gail’s Archway had its windows smashed and its walls sprayed with graffiti

This week, in a now-amended Guardian column, journalist Jonathan Liew wrote that the “very presence” of Gail’s in Archway, a stone’s throw from an independent Palestinian café, felt like “an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression”. The claim sparked accusations of antisemitism from across the political spectrum, and led a pro-Israel campaign group to organise a protest outside the Guardian’s offices. Attendees toted Gail’s paper bags in a show of solidarity.

The bakery is named after Gail Mejia, an Israeli businesswoman who moved to London in 1978. Mejia set up a wholesale bakery called The Bread Factory in the 1990s, which supplied bread to some of London’s top restaurants. In 2003, Mckinsey investors Molnar (from Florida) and Ran Avidan (from Tel Aviv) bought half of the business, and two years later the trio opened the first Gail’s branded bakery on Hampstead High Street. From the beginning, the brand identity was strong. Employees were, and still are, called “breadheads”, and the interiors were designed to look artisanal and eclectic, with oak countertops and exposed brick walls. “Even the guacamole is handmade here,” Avidan said proudly in a 2007 interview. The plan was clear: Avidan said they wanted to open “as many shops as we can, as fast as we can, as long as we can stick to what we believe in”.

On some corners of the internet, the fact that two of the founders of Gail’s are Israeli is enough grounds for a boycott. In one Instagram video with over 1,700 likes, a man walks into a Gail’s and announces to the queueing customers: “Hey, just to make you aware, this is an Israeli-owned coffee shop.”

Gail’s has said in statements that it is “a British business with no specific connections to any country or government outside the UK”. Mejia and Avidan are no longer involved in the business, but subsequent investors have brought fresh controversies. Mejia was bought out in 2011 by Luke Johnson, the former chairman of Patisserie Valerie, which collapsed in 2019 after alleged accounting fraud. Johnson often posts on X about things which he thinks are nonsense: the Covid lockdown, net zero, and the “disease” of woke that has infected everything from universities and corporations to the Financial Times. He also hates Sadiq Khan. “London has had a Muslim socialist mayor since 2016. It’s like a city committing slow suicide,” he posted last year. In late 2023, the barrister Jolyon Maugham called for a boycott of Gail’s over Johnson’s views. He even offered to send one of his X followers some sourdough starter to help wean them off the bread.

A 500-million-pound behemoth

Since 2021, the chain has been majority owned by Bain Capital, an American private investment firm which bought Avidan’s stake and a proportion of Johnson’s. In the intervening years, it has rapidly expanded. When Bain invested, there were 73 Gail’s across England and the company was estimated to be worth £200 million. Now there are around 200, with plans for 40 more this year. When Gail’s enlisted Goldman Sachs to drive further investment in 2024, the company’s estimated value had ballooned to £500m.

Before the Archway branch had its windows smashed, there was a protest outside organised by Islington Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The organisers have said that their protest had “nothing to do with the fact that Gail’s founders are Israeli”, nor were they responsible for the vandalism. Rather, they objected to Bain Capital’s “predatory growth model” which harms local businesses, and the fact that it invests in Israeli tech and cybersecurity companies.

Second to the politics are the price tags. Gail’s is comfortably at the upper end of London’s flat white index with its £4.10 offering — though it is no more expensive than comparable upmarket chains like Rosslyn and Redemption Roasters. Gail’s says that it is committed to quality, even if it comes at a higher price. The milk they use comes from a family-run farm in Lancaster, while their beans are sourced by London-based Union Coffee.

Gail’s £4.10 flat white is on par with other upmarket chains

Gail’s

Molnar has said that the rapid expansion of Gail’s is happening because “we need more points of sale for good bread”. And in the world of good bread, £4.80 for a sourdough loaf is actually quite reasonable. A similar loaf from popular east London bakery The Dusty Knuckle will set you back £5.80, while M&S’s “craft collection” signature sourdough costs up to £5.75.

Its stores may have sprouted up across the breadth of England, from Essex to Ellesmere Port, but Gail’s still identifies as a “neighbourhood bakery” and paints a cutesy image of itself. “Whilst we are ordinary people, we want to make extraordinary things,” intones the About Us page on the website. All the loaves are “lovingly crafted”, and Gail’s stated raison d’être is to “bring humanity back into the food world, and back to local communities”. Most locations are partnered with local charities who they donate leftover food to, though staff say that lots of sandwiches have to be thrown out each day, as they are not kept refrigerated. This makes them taste better but means they can only be on display for a few hours.

Molnar is insistent that Gail’s branches are called bakeries (he repeatedly corrected a podcast host, who kept calling them “stores”), though it is something of a technicality. While the muffins and sandwiches are prepared in-store, the bread and most of the pastries and cakes are baked in a factory on an industrial estate in Hendon — or in Gail’s lingo, “our central craft bakery”.

“I definitely don’t see them as a neighbourhood bakery,” says Sanne Wigbels. In November last year, a Gail’s opened directly opposite Wigbels’ plant shop and café, Ivy and the Wolf, in Crystal Palace. “A chain that opens up large scale cafés in areas which are already saturated with cafés and bakeries is not a neighbourly thing,” she says. Wigbels’ main concern is that the arrival of Gail’s has “opened the door for bigger businesses that have deeper pockets and can afford longer term rents”, which would in turn drive up rent for others. Molnar told the Standard: “we believe a healthy high street is a diverse one made up of many different businesses”.

Protests and efficiency drives

Gail’s used to be concentrated in leafy west London neighbourhoods, where it earned its reputation as a bakery for posh people. When top brass are scouting out new locations, farmer’s markets and schools are green flags they look for. But really, anywhere will do nowadays — even Gatwick airport. Beyond the prices, there is a sense that Gail’s is designed to cater for a certain stratum of the English bourgeoisie. According to Milla, a former barista at Gail’s East Sheen, her branch was a hotbed for “yoga mummies”, who would come in to “drop their children on the floor together and have a coffee”. Perhaps that image is why the residents of Walthamstow (once named the “coolest” neighbourhood in the UK) objected so strongly to the arrival of a Gail’s in 2024. A petition against the bakery opening received over 1,800 signatures from locals, who felt it would take away from the character of their high street. Earlier that summer, the Liberal Democrats had used the chain as part of its election strategy. When looking for seats they might win from the Tories, one of the questions they asked was “Does it have a Gail’s?”

Gail’s now has around 200 locations across England

Since Bain took over, various processes have been implemented to make the bakeries as streamlined and profitable as possible. Staff must aim to fulfil each hot drink order within two minutes, and every week, managers are sent a “coffee efficiency report” for the store. “It made zero sense,” recalls Jake (not his real name), who worked as a barista at Gail’s in 2025. There was a screen above the coffee machine with orders which hadn’t yet been fulfilled, and a timer for each one — whether it was a single espresso or six drinks with different milks.

“During a rush, it would pressurise you to be sloppy and potentially mix up drinks, and it took out the more conversational, community-building part that Gail’s is supposedly meant to be preaching,” Jake says. A poor coffee efficiency score led to “unnecessary hounding” from the manager, and added time pressure the following week. Molnar told The Standard that Gail’s is focused on great service, and “like most in the hospitality industry we use delivery targets to support this.” For other baristas, the coffee timer did sometimes come in handy with impatient customers. “I’d get a lot of people that would be in my face and rude, or trying to grab someone else’s coffee,” recalls Milla. “I’d say, ‘You’ve been waiting for 1 minute 54 seconds, chill out.’”

Managers receive quarterly bonuses based on five key targets — one of them being the profitability of their branch. At busy London outlets, the turnover is high enough not to split hairs. But the Gail’s Jake worked at was in a sleepy commuter town and was under “constant financial strain”. Jake says that if it was quiet at the start of the week, his hours for later that week were often cut down. Or, on days with low footfall, “it would be strongly suggested that I could finish my shift early and lose out on two or three hours of work.” Gail’s assert that they “plan and publish rotas at least two weeks in advance so our employees can organise their time outside of work”.

Gail’s now has over 2,000 “breadheads” and turned over nearly £220m last year (up over 20 per cent from the year before), with an operating profit of £25m. Critics argue that the company uses investor money to overwhelm competition. Critics of the critics say that this is just an aversion to success and growth — and at what point does a bakery’s multiplication become unacceptable? Cult favourite Pophams has three branches across east London, but what about Buns From Home, which has opened over 20 locations across the city in the past few years?

The woman who gave her name to Gail’s now lives a quiet life in Portugal with her husband. In a rare interview with Airmail a couple of years ago, Mejia said she found the idea that Gail’s was a gentrifying force “uniquely distasteful”. She accepts that “not everything is perfect” (she said that the coffee was “shit”) but ultimately, love it or hate it, Gail’s has a captive audience. “It’s insanely successful,” she said. “You can’t argue with that.”

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Everton vs Chelsea: Prediction, kick-off time, team news, TV, live stream, h2h results, odds

Published

20 minutes ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Everton vs Chelsea: Prediction, kick-off time, team news, TV, live stream, h2h results, odds

Liam Rosenior’s side currently sit sixth in the division, three points adrift of fourth-placed Aston Villa, but several clubs are hot on their heels – including Everton.

The Toffees, led by David Moyes, are pushing for a potential first European campaign in a decade.

They lost 2-0 at league leaders Arsenal last time out but remained eighth in the table, with just five points between themselves and Chelsea before kick-off.

Both sides have been dealing with injuries in key defensive positions recently, which could make for a free-scoring affair on Merseyside.

Date, kick-off time and venue

Everton vs Chelsea is scheduled for a 5.30pm GMT kick-off on Saturday, March 21, 2026.

The match will take place at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Where to watch Everton vs Chelsea

TV channel: In the UK, the game will be televised live on Sky Sports, with coverage starting on Sky Sports Main Event at 5pm GMT.

Live stream: Sky Sports subscribers can also catch the contest live online via the Sky Go app.

Live blog: You can follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport’s live blog.

Everton vs Chelsea team news

Everton were unexpectedly missing first-choice centre-back duo James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite for their visit to the Emirates Stadium last Saturday, and Moyes kept his cards close to his chest both pre- and post-match, insisting he had “nothing to say about them” at full-time.

It is believed that Branthwaite’s workload is being managed after he missed the first several months of the campaign with a hamstring injury.

Tarkowski, meanwhile, reportedly picked up an injury in training before the Arsenal trip.

If neither have sufficiently recovered by this weekend, the back-up pairing of Jake O’Brien and Michael Keane may be deployed again.

Elsewhere, there is a chance Charly Alcaraz could play a role but Jack Grealish is still expected to miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his foot.

Tyrique George is ineligible to face his parent club, but former Chelsea midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall should keep his regular starting spot.

Regular: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

Getty Images

Rosenior said Chalobah, who has played the third-most minutes in all competitions for Chelsea this term, would be assessed on Wednesday, with an update expected later this week.

The Blues boss may have Malo Gusto to call upon for the trip to Merseyside, with the French full-back having missed the PSG game due to illness. Benoit Badiashile was also out with a bug.

Blow: Trevoh Chalobah

Getty Images

Everton vs Chelsea prediction

Much of how this match plays out will likely depend both on how each team bounces back from defeats in their most recent outings, as well as how each manager addresses their defensive issues and shortcomings.

Chelsea, who have now lost three in a row in all competitions, desperately need a win like the one they managed at Villa Park a few weeks ago to get their top-four challenge back on track before rivals pull too far away.

Their notably low tally of clean sheets under Rosenior (one in 14 league matches) suggests they may struggle to keep the Toffees out, so scoring against Everton – who beat Burnley in their last home game but have generally struggled when hosting the so-called bigger clubs this term – is a must.

The Toffees will be thinking similarly, particularly with backline absences for both sides, so we’re expecting a high-scoring evening that the visitors may just edge thanks to the comparatively superior quality of their attack.

Head to head (h2h) history and results

In the past 10 meetings between these clubs, Everton has won just twice: 1-0 in 2022, and 2-0 in 2023.

Both of those results came at their old stomping ground Goodison Park, where Chelsea – who have a much better recent home record against this opponent, including a 6-0 triumph in 2024 – actually emerged victorious from only one of their final eight visits (D2, L5).

The Toffees have been better on the road this term (W7, D3, L5) than at their new home (W5, D4, L6), though, and one of their six away losses came against the Blues in December.

Last season, the corresponding fixture last season ended in a goalless stalemate.

Everton vs Chelsea match odds

Odds via Betfair (subject to change).

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China not planning to invade Taiwan in 2027, US intelligence agencies say | World News

Published

28 minutes ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

China intensified military drills near Taiwan. Pic: AP

China is not currently planning to invade Taiwan next year, according to US spy agencies.

Instead of military intervention, Beijing is looking to gain control of the key island in the Pacific without force, an intelligence assessment states.

The annual report said that although Chinese Communist Party leaders did not plan to retake Taiwan by force, the People’s Liberation Army was developing its military capabilities that could be used in any bid to seize the island.

It read: “Chinese leaders do not currently plan to execute an invasion of Taiwan in 2027, nor do they have a fixed timeline for achieving unification.”

The assessment comes as Beijing ramps up pressure on Taiwan through frequent military drills in one of the world’s biggest potential flashpoints.

The Pentagon said last year that the US military believed China was preparing to be able to take Taiwan through “brute force” by 2027 – the centenary of the ‌founding of its People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

But the latest report, released on Wednesday, said Beijing would prefer to ‘peacefully’ pursue its goal of ‘reunification’ with the democratically governed island.

“China, despite its threat to use force to compel unification if necessary and to counter what it sees as a US attempt to use Taiwan to undermine China’s rise, prefers to achieve unification without the use of force, if possible,” the report said.

It added that the PLA was making “steady but uneven” progress on ⁠the capabilities it could use to capture Taiwan.

China’s foreign ministry responded to the report by saying that the US should correct its understanding of China and that resolving the Taiwan question was a matter for China only.

But Japan rejected claims in the report there had been a “significant shift” in Tokyo’s stance on Taiwan, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a Chinese attack on the island would launch a Japanese response.

Minoru Kihara, Japanese chief cabinet secretary, said: “The ‌government’s position of judging an existential crisis situation with all the ‌information it gathers is consistent with the past.

“The assessment ⁠that there has been a major shift is not accurate.”

China responded furiously to Ms ⁠Takaichi’s remarks that Japan would take military action in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, urging its people not to travel to Japan and ⁠choking off some exports.

Ms Takaichi has maintained that her position – which increases the risk of a Chinse attack on Taiwan triggering a regional conflict – was consistent with longstanding Japanese policy.

The US report said: “China is employing multi-domain coercive pressure that probably will intensify through 2026, aimed both at punishing Japan and deterring other countries from making similar statements about their potential involvement in a Taiwan crisis.”

US President Donald Trump, who delayed his planned trip to China at the end of this month over the Iran war, has repeatedly touted his “great relationship” with ‌Chinese leader Xi Jinping and downplayed the threat of Chinese drills near Taiwan.

He said Mr Xi told him he will not attack Taiwan while the US president is in office, though Beijing has never confirmed this.

China views Taiwan – which was established in 1949 when the nationalist government retreated after Communist forces seized power on the mainland – as its own territory, and has never renounced the use of force to take the island.

Taiwan rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide its future.

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Crash in Wisbech: Search continues for missing man after car enters river

Published

35 minutes ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

The police are continuing to search for the body of a missing man after the car entered the River Nene near Wisbech St Mary.

Cambridgeshire Police are continuing to search for a missing man after a car entered the River Nene on North Brink near Wisbech on Tuesday, March 17, at around 8.20pm. A specialist operations unit will be carrying out the search on the river on Thursday (March 19).

The car had five people aged between 16 and 19 in it at the time of the crash. Three people, two females and one male, were able to get out of the vehicle and were taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn with non-life threatening injuries.

The police recovered the body of the missing teenage girl during the search on Wednesday (March 18). Detectives from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit are continuing to work with local enquiries.

A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “Officers from our specialist operations unit will be on the river today and the search for the missing man will continue.

“In addition, detectives from our Serious Collision Investigation Unit will be supporting with local enquires and continued engagement with families and witnesses.”

The police are asking for anyone with information about the incident to come forward. You should contact the police quoting incident 515 of 17 March.

To get more news and top stories delivered directly to your phone, join our new WhatsApp community. Click this link to receive your daily dose of CambridgeshireLive content.

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‘I’m a Secret Lives of Mormon Wives superfan and MomTok can survive without Taylor’

Published

43 minutes ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Taylor Frankie Paul has found herself surrounded by controversy one again with reports suggesting filming of season five of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has been paused

Dan Laurie Deputy Editor of Screen Time

12:17, 19 Mar 2026

I’ve watched all four seasons of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and I’m a huge fan of the show.

The addictive reality series follows a group of Utah-based women who popularised the online subculture known as MomTok, which was founded to break the stigma surrounding strict gender Mormon roles and create an online outlet for young mothers.

Earlier this week, news broke that filming of the fifth season had been halted due to an alleged domestic violence involving ringleader Taylor Frankie Paul and her ex Dakota Mortensen, who is the father of her youngest child.

TMZ reported that production had “hit an unexpected pause” due to a “blowup” between Taylor and Dakota, claiming the situation was “intense enough that filming couldn’t continue as planned.”

Fans of the SLOMW have been following Taylor and Dakota’s turbulent relationship since season one aired in 2024 and will be aware this isn’t the first time filming has been halted.

In the very first episode, Taylor was arrested for allegedly hitting, choking and throwing metal chairs at Dakota and she later pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault.

The series premiere episode featured actual police body camera footage of the 2023 arrest, which caused a major delay between the filming of the first and second episodes leaving fans wondering whether season five could also be impacted by the latest news.

However, this time is different as MomTok members Whitney Leavitt, Macyi Neeley, Jennifer Afflect, Mikayla Matthews, Jessi Draper, Layla Taylor and Miranda McWhorter have become established stars in their own right and have stepped out of Taylor’s shadow over the past two years.

The women are now embracing their individual projects with Macyi releasing her own book and both Whitney and Jen landing spots on Dancing With The Stars in 2025 while still making their iconic TikTok dance videos which made them famous in the first place.

Stand-out star Whitney is currently playing leading role Roxy Hart in Chicago on Broadway and it was recently announced the fan-favourite made box office history for garnering sky-high ticket sales during her since-extended run.

While some viewers find Whitney polarising or “villainous,” I personally see her as a central, interesting character who has helped boost the show’s popularity and could easily step in to lead MomTok if Taylor was ever to take a break.

They’ve all welcomed the cameras into their homes and opened up about personal issues from eating disorders and health battles to emotional affairs, and have earned their own fans across the globe individually.

Collectively the woman boost millions of followers across their own social media platforms, which proves that fans are interested in their every move and proves the show can gone on with or without Taylor.

MomTok may have skyrocketed to fame after it Taylor revealed on TikTok Live that the group was involved in a “soft-swinging” scandal but the popularity of the other cast members proves fans are invested in more than just Taylor’s drama.

In the show, the women are often left questioning if Taylor is the right leader for MomTok and if the group can survive another scandal but I think there’s definitely plenty more dirty sodas and DadTok bashing to come.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu

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Lidl hopes to open first supermarket in Cambridgeshire’s newest town

Published

49 minutes ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Lidl GB hopes to open the first supermarket in Cambridgeshire’s newest town. The company has submitted a planning application for a store to serve Northstowe and surrounding villages.

The planning submission to South Cambridgeshire District Council follows a public consultation. A Lidl GB spokesperson said more than 2,500 respondents backed the proposals.

CambridgeshireLive previously visited Northstowe, where residents said they could buy bubble tea but not a pint of milk. Locals said they were frustrated by the lack of shops in the town.

The proposed Lidl would be near Station Road, on the former Pentair Hypro EU site, and is expected create around 40 new local jobs. A spokesperson said: “Feedback from the consultation highlighted strong community demand for a discount foodstore in the area, with respondents welcoming the additional choice and competition a new Lidl would bring.

“A key theme emerging from the consultation was the desire for more convenient local shopping options as Northstowe continues to grow. Respondents said the store would make it easier for residents to access affordable groceries locally and help reduce the need to travel further afield for their weekly shop.”

Andrew Hodgkinson, Regional Head of Property at Lidl GB, said: “This marks a significant step forward in our plans to bring a new Lidl store to Northstowe. The proposed store would enhance shopping choice for the growing community, providing convenient access to our high quality, affordable products while also creating around 40 new jobs for local people.”

The proposals include a bakery and customer toilets. The store would have a net sales area of 1,529 sqm and provide 118 car parking spaces, including six disabled bays, six parent and child spaces, and electric vehicle charging points with capacity for additional chargers in the future.

There would be more than 40 covered cycle spaces. Pedestrian and cycle routes would pass the store.

The planning application can be viewed on South Cambridgeshire District Council’s planning portal under reference 26/00951/FUL.

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Child marriages to be banned in NI as plans to increase legal age of marriage announced

Published

1 hour ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Currently, young people aged 16 and 17 can marry or form a civil partnership with parental consent

Child marriages are to be banned in Northern Ireland as new legislation would raise the legal age of marriage from 16 to 18.

Finance Minister John O’Dowd has introduced the new legislation to the Assembly which will raise the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership to 18.

Currently young people here aged 16 and 17 can marry or form a civil partnership conditional on parental or equivalent consent. The Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill will raise the minimum age from 16 to 18. In addition, temporary arrangements have been in place which permit belief marriages, such as humanist ceremonies, to proceed in the same way as religious marriages. This new Bill will make belief marriage arrangements official and permanent.

For the period 2020 – 2024, there were 183 marriages where at least one partner was under 18. Provisional figures available for 2025 show there were 13 marriages where at least one partner was under 18

Speaking following the introduction of the Bill on Monday, Finance Minister John O’Dowd said: “The legislation introduced will help to better safeguard our children and young people.

“Child marriage can increase the risk of forced marriage and can deprive children of education and other essential life opportunities. Girls, who are more frequently married as children than boys, are especially at risk.

“Organisations such as the United Nations and local stakeholders recommend raising the minimum age for marriage from the present 16 to 18.

“I am therefore convinced of the need for change, particularly given that almost every respondent to the consultation supported raising the minimum age.”

The Minister continued: “For several years, belief marriages have been permitted through temporary arrangements. This Bill will now put belief marriages on a permanent legal footing, giving them the same statutory recognition as religious marriages.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

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Coronation Street fans heap praise on Megan actress for ‘superb’ portrayal of ‘deplorable’ character | Soaps

Published

1 hour ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Coronation Street fans heap praise on Megan actress for 'superb' portrayal of 'deplorable' character | Soaps

Fans have been impressed by Beth Nixon’s performance as Megan Walsh (Picture: ITV)

Megan Walsh may be a vile character, but Coronation Street fans are full of praise for actress Beth Nixon who has brought her to life.

The character first hit our screens in November 2025 as Will Driscoll’s (Lucas Hodgson-Wale) athletics coach, though it soon became clear that there was something much more sinister going on.

It transpired that Megan had been grooming Will, which was why he had been so reluctant to leave Hull for Weatherfield – especially when Megan made it clear that she wasn’t prepared to embark on a long-distance relationship.

However, seeing how much the move was upsetting Will, Eva Price (Catherine Tyldesley) and Maggie Driscoll (Pauline McLynn) decided to pay Megan to make the journey to Manchester regularly to continue Will’s athletics training.

It wasn’t long before Megan secured a job at Will’s school and moved to Coronation Street permanently.

She soon embarked on a relationship with fellow teacher Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard), which did not go down well with Will. However, Megan justified her actions as being a ploy to keep their relationship hidden.

Megan Walsh looking at Daniel Osbourne as they talk in Coronation Street. — Megan has used her relationship with Daniel Osbourne as a cover (Picture: ITV)

This only kept Will’s jealousy in check for so long, and on Christmas Day, he finally snapped and attacked Daniel in the ginnel.

Obviously, Daniel caught on to Will’s dislike of him, but Megan explained his attitude away by insisting he had a teenage crush on her.

Unfortunately, Megan’s lies were believed, and things escalated on Will’s 16th birthday when she slept with him.

In recent weeks, she has been fighting to keep her secret under wraps after Sam Blakeman (Jude Riordan) worked out what was going on – and that Will wasn’t Megan’s first victim.

Megan has gone out of her way to scare Sam into keeping quiet, from stealing his essays to threatening to expose him as a ‘creep’.

Will Driscoll looking worried at an unbothered Megan Walsh in the Bistro in Coronation Street, while Sam Blakeman keeps an eye on them from a distance. — Will Driscoll is not Megan’s first victim (Picture: ITV)

With his grades affected by her tampering, Sam took to abusing ADHD medication, hoping it would help him study.

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After collapsing and ending up in hospital because of it, Sam finally confessed Megan’s crimes to Eva and Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson), and Megan was arrested after Eva and Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker) went to the police.

It can’t be easy to play such a disturbed villain, but fans have praised actress Beth Nixon for her performance in the role.

Taking to social media site Twitter/X, they called for her to be recognised with awards for her portrayal of the ‘deplorable’ character, as they praised her ‘believable’ performance.

I will say Beth Nixon has upped her game in this storyline. She’s done a great job of portraying the dual personality of Megan’s malicious and twisted ways and balancing it out with the cordial teacher #Corrie pic.twitter.com/QLs4Cp4PiX
— Ange (@agf1052) March 17, 2026

Beth Nixon as Megan, has been absolutely superb throughout this grooming story👏🏾👏🏾 award winning performances from her! #Corrie
— Alicia (@xxAlicia89) March 17, 2026

tonight’s corrie was soooo good, i can’t get over just how good beth nixon is. gutted the BSAs aren’t going ahead this year cause she deserves her flowers
— vicky (@daisysmidgeley) March 17, 2026
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Megan marks the first TV role Beth has played, having graduated drama school in 2021.

She previously revealed that she had auditioned for the role of Lauren Bolton, which was ultimately won by actress Cait Fitton, as well as another character involved in that storyline.

‘This is my first TV job, but not the first time I have auditioned for Corrie,’ she explained. ‘I auditioned for the part of Lauren Bolton and then for a girl who was giving Lauren a hard time at the mother and baby unit.’

Beth clearly hasn’t taken the responsibility of playing a role like Megan lightly, and revealed that she had done a lot of research for the storyline.

‘The writing is brilliant and the research team have been working with Barnados, so much of the work has been done for me but I have read newspaper reports about court cases involving female teachers that are very similar to what Megan is doing.

‘There have been a few high profile cases, every situation is different but it brings it home that this is something that is happening in the real world. Hopefully someone who doesn’t realise what is happening to them, that they are being groomed, might see this storyline and realise that what that person is doing is wrong and illegal.’

MORE: Coronation Street abuser Megan arrested in early ITVX release as she is caught out at last

MORE: Eva’s blistering revenge in Coronation Street as desperate Megan plots escape

MORE: Sam rushed to hospital in Coronation Street as evil Megan gets more twisted

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NewsBeat

World Athletics Indoor Championships 2026: Amy Hunt on empowering female athletes

Published

1 hour ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Hunt’s stunning run for world silver came six years after she alerted the world to her potential as a record-breaking junior.

But, between those headline moments, injuries disrupted the start of her senior career, including a ruptured quadriceps in 2022 – while attempting to manage an often frictional relationship between her sporting ambition and studies.

Hunt would not improve on the 22.42-second run – which smashed the under-18 200m world record in 2019 – until last summer, before going faster still by running 22.08 in Japan at the end of a season where she also recorded 60m and 100m personal bests.

Continuing her development under coach Marco Airale in the northern Italian city of Padova, Hunt’s immediate target is improving on her fifth-place finish at last year’s world indoors.

The 60m is her least-favourite event – her 5ft 10in (1.78m) frame makes getting out of the blocks quickly challenging – but a necessary focus to benefit her performances over the longer distances.

Longer term, she hopes to become a contender over 400m as part of a bid to win as many as four Olympic medals in 2028, an achievement which, she says, would see her become “an icon”.

But, away from the track, Hunt is also keen to ensure she plays her part in encouraging more athletes to pursue a degree by setting up a scholarship, similar to the initiative by British rapper Stormzy to support black students studying at Cambridge.

“I didn’t want to take the easy way. That’s not me and that doesn’t inform anything I do. I have to always try and be the best every single day,” says Hunt.

“Talking about it opens it up a lot more and enables more women and girls from an athletic background to be able to get there.

“It’s about having a conversation and helping them be more confident.”

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Bolton patients urged to order repeat prescriptions in time for Easter

Published

1 hour ago

19 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Bolton patients urged to order repeat prescriptions in time for Easter

Karen O’Brien, Regional Chief Pharmacist for NHS England in the North West, recommends that any repeat prescriptions needed in the days over the four-day Easter weekend are requested by Wednesday, 25 March.

This is to give plenty of time for medications to be prescribed by your GP practice and dispensed by your community pharmacy.

GP practices and community pharmacies will have limited opening hours over the Easter period, and many will be closed across the weekend from Friday 3 April to Monday 6 April.

This will make it more challenging for patients to access medicines at short notice.

Running out of necessary medicines and using emergency or urgent services over the Easter break can add pressure to already busy services. In some medical conditions it can be dangerous for patients to be without necessary repeat medications.

Over the Easter bank holiday, the NHS 111 phone service for the North West typically receives hundreds of additional calls from patients who have forgotten to order their medicine.

There will be community pharmacies open throughout the Easter period, who are available to support people with medicines matters, minor illnesses and health queries.

Karen said: “Knowing how much of your medications you’ll need across the Easter weekend and planning ahead for your repeat prescriptions means people can enjoy their weekend without worrying about their medication.

“Running out of your usual medication can have serious consequences, especially if you use them to manage a heart condition and breathing problems or a health condition such as diabetes and epilepsy and is the last thing you want to do while your friends and family are together. Keeping your medicine cabinets stocked for simple ailments will also help and your community pharmacy can advise with this.”

Dr Paula Cowan, GP and Regional Medical Director for Primary Care for NHS England in the North West, advised: “If you take regular medications for a long term health condition and if you need a repeat prescription in the week leading up to Easter or over the Easter period, please remember to always request your repeat via your practice or the NHS app at least six working days in advance.

“This is particularly important ahead of bank holiday weekends and allows your practice and pharmacy to have your repeat ready in time for you. Please help us to help you and avoid any gaps in your medication.”

She added: “The easiest way to order repeat prescriptions is by using GP online services, via the NHS App or through your GP practice website. If you do not have access to GP online services, you can phone your GP practice to order prescriptions.”

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